Charging issue?

[550ERAT]

83 GS550E-Started right up the other day (and has for the last several weeks), drove it 2 miles and parked. Sat for 3 hours. Started right up again, drove it back home. It ran fantastic. Parked it in the driveway for 10 mins. Went to start it up to move it into the garage, and ....DEAD. The lights all worked and were nice and bright. It almost sounded the solenoid (same type of sound) No clicks or anything like that. Threw the battery tender on it over night and the next morning, it started right up and has ever since (since monday). Would a bad stator drain a battery in a 2 mile ride, or could it be something else? Bad solenoid? (got hot and wouldn't work?) Just throwing this out there. Thanks.

[jbs80106]

are you sure it was the battery?

when it died in the driveway? Did you check the voltage? Easy enough to check if the stator is working properly now. Another possible cause of not starting could be either a loose ground some place or maybe your starter is getting gunked up?

Have you ever cleaned out the starter?

Grounds could be a pain and be intermittent. I discovered recently that one of my front turn signals had a wire just barely being held in place by a nut...when the wire isn't touching the nut or threaded end of the turn signal, bike won't start.....wierd.

[550ERAT]

I'm not sure what it is actually. Just spitballin' I am going to check all the grounds this weekend, as well as the rest of the harness. Also gonna recheck the stator (with the stator papers). just to make sure I have covered all bases.

[duaneage]

Make sure the solenoid has a good ground, if you touch a wire from the + of the battery to the yellow and green on the solenoid it should click and start the bike. If not, run a ground wire with terminals from one of the mounting bolts to the frame or the - terminal of the battery to ground it properly.

This got me stuck in Home Depot once, I was able to bump start to get home.

[Redman]

If you suspect charging problem, only real way to know is to measure voltage with a meter. Quessing and surmizzing based on how long it sat and long you went and what the click sounded like dont really tell you if the charging system is charging.

If you dont have a meter now, you are going to want one.

[550ERAT]

Thanks, I agree with all of you. Will be doing checks this weekend. Bike started right up again tonight, took it fer a qwik ride and no issues. I will be checking everything including the sidestand switch. I may even do the r/r grounding thing and possibly the coil mod.

[550ERAT]

Well, began checking the connections today and found the plug that connects the stator(generator) to the r/r was partially melted. It was only in one spot over one yellow wire. Now, I did change my r/r after I got some funky readings on the meter. The bike still starts up but....could this have been an issue with the old r/r not doing it's job right? Or can it be a stator issue? Last time I checked it all the readings were good. I don't know if the melting is new or not, very hard to tell. I am going to replace the plug (hopefully NAPA has something I can work with).

[Dave8338]

Not likely the stator itself. Chances are, the reason that the plug melted...was/is due to a poor ground to the R/R. Have you checked the posts on the battery while the bike was running at an idle? They should show around 13.5+- and up to 15.5 MAX when the bike is turning 5000RPM's. If you see a reading above the 15.5 MAX reading @ 5000, then your R/R is shot.

[duaneage]

Replace the bullet connectors with new ones. Some people like the spade terminals and that is fine also. As long as they are not 30 years old. It's not the design of the connector, it's the material and age. Modern connectors are alloy and last longer.